To some, Tennessee football is more than just a game; it is a lifestyle. Current Chevrolet Seat Performance Engineering Specialist Daniel Cohen combines his passion for UT Football and engineering to make the nine-hour drive from Detroit to Knoxville for football time in Tennessee.
This nine-hour drive may not sound like the most comfortable thing to do on the weekend, but Cohen says, “I’m a huge Tennessee Vols football fan. I have season tickets, and it’s roughly nine hours from the Detroit area to Knoxville. As a result of those drives, I come up with a lot of tweaks that can enable our seats to be comfortable over a long trip.”
Cohen is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a former Challenge X team member. He is still tied deeply to the EcoCAR 2 program today with his work in his quest for ever-more-comfortable seats in the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. Oscar is his sidekick and helps him make the changes in the seat design. His official description is a “three-dimensional, mannequin-like simulation tool used by engineers early in the product development process of Malibu to determine the overall dimensional layout of the car’s interior.”
“Together, we’re providing Chevrolet Malibu customers more comfort,” Cohen says. He tells us that Oscar made sure new Malibu owners have “enough space, roominess and comfort. He was used to determine hip room, leg room, knee clearance, vision angles, (and) headroom in order to set up the architecture of the 2013 Chevy Malibu.”
Cohen is obviously proud of his University of Tennessee Volunteer roots, and he does research while he’s on the road to check out his gridiron heroes. He then takes his observations back to the seat performance lab on Monday to see what he and Oscar can do to make the next-generation of seats even more comfortable.
Check out the video below to see some of the history behind Oscar and the technology used today to make the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu seats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh3iM0yDjqc
